How Long…? Nasser Butt

A Note Sunday, August 30, 2020

Having just finished my Summer Camp 2020 a few days ago, I was asked a question afterwards as to why I have been placing so much emphasis upon the Small San-shou for the last few years?

Well, there are two very simple and logical answers:

I haven’t finished teaching it yet - which signifies the vastness and depth of the subject matter! It’s a test to gain entry to the Erle Montaigue System!

I’ll begin with the second point first - it being the easiest.

Small San-Sau is one of the tests that one must take in the Erle Montaigue system… I regard this exercise as one of the most important training methods as it teaches, timing, balance and coordination, where to strike, how to strike, the direction of dim-mak strikes and the power to use. It must be stressed however, that although each technique could be used as a self-defense method, you must only ever treat the small San-Sau as a training method, never taking away or adding to it. It was designed by persons of martial genius to teach us something and to change it in any way is to take away from what it has to teach you.

Erle Montaigue Internal Gung-Fu Volume 2

I’d say that the above statement requires no further clarification.

Regarding Point 1… I started writing about the importance of the Small San-shou way back in 2014 and started teaching its ‘hidden’ principles in 2016 both here in the UK, the USA and in Italy, along with the associated training methods! I stated way back then that it takes around 5 years of study to develop and understand. So, here we are in 2020… and by my simple reckoning we still have another year to go!

Whilst editing the current edition of Lift Hands Volume 15, I came across the article ‘How Long…?’, which I had written in 2017 and another note in 2014. It made me smile that I have consistently stated the importance of progressional learning for several years now - and yet still the same questions are being asked of me!

Below is the revised and edited 2017 article.

It

amazes me how in the modern era we have so-called martial arts ‘masters’ who give out imbecilic advice to their students on a daily basis and are never challenged by anyone about it!

These self-appointed ‘masters’ with their lofty titles and ‘Mickey Mouse Degrees’, can easily be found out by a diligent student by simply carrying out a little basic research for themselves.

I regularly receive questions from students who have been confused as to “How long it should take them to learn a specific form or a training method in their Taiji?”

Let us clarify this point once and for all by using simple logic and the advice left to us by some of history’s greatest warriors, and some common sense!

Firstly, we must understand the difference between learning a form and studying and understanding a form - they are not one and the same!

Learning a form or a training method can be done relatively quickly depending on the individual concerned - but that does not mean that you understand it or know it! For example, a dancer or anyone involved in body mechanics can learn the movements of a form or a training method very quickly but, that DOES NOT mean that they now know or understand it and are ready to move onto the next thing!

According to one of the greatest warriors and strategists in history, Miyamoto Musashi, it takes:

“A thousand days of training to develop, ten thousand days of training to polish. You must examine all this well.”

Let me make it simple… what Musashi is telling us is that it takes approximately 3 years to learn and almost 27 years of study to know and understand! These are not merely fancy words or sayings - they are instructions to be followed by diligent students!

Furthermore, Musashi continues:

“It is necessary to know ten thousand things by knowing one well. If you are to practice the way of strategy, nothing must escape your eyes. Reflect well on this.”

Here Musashi is re-emphasizing the point of studying and understanding ONE subject “well”… it’s not rocket science!

According to Dong Yingjie, one of the foremost disciples of Yang Cheng-fu, in his book - Methods Of Applying Taiji Boxing (Taiji Quan Shiyong Fa) - co-authored by Yang Cheng-fu:

“When beginning to learn the Thirteen Dynamics solo set, it takes about three months to become acquainted with it, about a year to become familiar with it, and about five years to become good at it. After that, the more your practice the more refined it will be. But without the authentic transmission, that will not be the case. Without the authentic transmission, the only result will be a slightly strengthened body. The boxing theory after ten years would still be confusing. How would you know its profound subtleties?”

The Thirteen Dynamics are the foundations of all things Taiji… again, note that Dong is in total agreement with Musashi and clearly points out the differences between learning, knowing and understanding a form!

The Small San-shou is a training method of the Thirteen Dynamics!

It takes FIVE years to just become “good” according to Dong and many more years to refine it and if not done right then “The boxing theory after ten years would still be confusing. How would you know its profound subtleties?”

I have consistently stated that Erle told his personal senior students that it would take “five years of study to begin to understand the San-shou” - that doesn’t mean that you simply ‘do’ the form for five years and that’s it - NO! It means that you have to study and breakdown every facet of it and understand it for at least five years - yet today students are being given idiotic advice that no - we don’t need to train it for that long. It can be done

quicker, or that it’s not even relevant!

I’ll let you into some ‘secrets’ - since my works are being read and plagiarized - I’ll throw this bone for free - not that it’ll make any difference to closed minds:

The San-shou should be, looked upon as a component of training taught alongside the traditional forms thus, giving them meaning. It can be split into four distinct categories:

Upper Body Strikes - consisting of fists, palms, elbows, forearms, fingers, shoulders, head, etc. Lower Body Strikes - consisting of kicks, stomps, knees, etc. Throws - consisting of take-downs and sweeps, etc. Seizing - consisting of locking the joints, breaking, choking, strangulation and submission holds.

Based upon the postures of ‘Grasping Sparrow’s Tail’ up to and including ‘Single Whip’, the form has its origins in Yang Cheng-fu’s modified form as opposed to Yang Lu-ch’an.

The form exhibits the four major energies of P’eng, Lu, Ji and Arn and teaches us a whole myriad of skills regarding the combative elements of the system including our understanding of combining long and short energy in a single motion. Sadly, as always, students fail to spend the amount of time required to fully understand this training method!

Erle would say that if a student were to study the Small San-shou for 5 years, along with the Post training, then he or she would be a formidable fighter being able to deal with virtually any attack!

How many of us can honestly say that they have spent or invested in that loss for 5 years?

The Small San-shou is so much more then just techniques or combinations strikes. It teaches us the absolute correct body mechanics, distance and timing skills. There are 5 levels at which it is taught. At its epitome of ‘freestyle’ attacks it really is something to behold. However, most students will never achieve these heights. Not because they are incapable but, as I have already said, because they never study it long enough to allow the form to reveal all its secrets!

There are so many more additional or rather ‘hidden’ movements contained within the form which are rarely taught except to a handful of students [bet I have your attention now!]… although these have always been alluded to or even briefly been demonstrated by Erle over the years!

I may be wrong in the following claim (but I’m probably not and will happily be corrected if otherwise) that I am, perhaps, the only person who has Erle on film showing virtually the whole Small San-shou including the ‘hidden’ movements!

I’ll give you a few moments to recover from your shock…

I was toying with the idea around a couple of years ago to put together all my raw footage of Erle on the Small San-shou and release it as a DVD - however, I decided against it.

I had to ask myself the question why did Erle not release this information on tape himself? Was it a case of holding back information? NO! Erle would always share his information. But, it was rather a case to distinguish students who had invested time and followed the path he had laid out and started to see things for themselves. It was a tool of encouragement that they were on the right track and of course, it also acted as a safeguard against those rip-off merchants who have unashamedly taken Erle’s information for their own nefarious use!

I have only recently [2014] started to teach some of these elements to my students - or at least those who have been investing time in loss and they have certainly had their ‘eyes opened’! But, I will openly admit that I will only pass on things in their entirety to those students who continue to invest time and train hard and have started to show inklings of understanding! It is the correct way to do things.

So, how many of you practicing the small San-sau have trained the above?

Have you learned how to reel inwards? Have you learned how to reel outwards? Have you been taught how to connect the ‘energy systems’? Have you been shown how to develop and release the energy from the joints?

These ‘masters’ instead of teaching elements progressively will come teach you a random form -just so you can have something ‘new’… but like the emperor’s new clothes - these are worthless!

So, let’s put this advice into context:

Folk like Musashi, Yang Lu-ch’an, Yang Ban-hou and Yang Shao-hou, Sun Lu-tang, Ching Ting-hwa - who spent their entire days training, fighting wars, maiming and killing, and honing their skills 24/7 whilst teaching professional soldiers and Imperial Guards the same skills are telling us that it takes a long time of study to understand and know your forms or training methods - years, decades - and then we have the modern donkeys telling us … Oh, you don’t need to train for as long as that to understand! We can do it quicker! We’ll get you your ‘Master’s Degree’ quicker - look, I got mine after 6 years! These fools have not even trained one full-day’s training of the Masters of old nor even been in a schoolyard fight let alone anywhere near a battlefield and yet they are claiming that they have the authority and knowledge to change the forms or training methods with their little egotistical minds!

Oh, the vanity of fools!

The same ‘masters’ when faced with a larger opponent and failing will tell us that the training methods or forms need adjusting to make them work!

Well… Dong is clear on the subject:

“Do not complain that Taiji cannot be applied nor blame your instructors for a lack of instruction. It is fundamentally related to internal skill…”

It’s a lack of understanding and skill - get it? It’s not a difficult conclusion!

Musashi… he who killed his first opponent - a trained samurai - whilst still in his early teens tells us:

“Teaching people a large number of sword techniques is turning the way into a business of selling goods, making beginners believe that there is something profound in their training by impressing them with a variety of techniques. This attitude toward strategy must be avoided, because thinking that there is a variety of ways of cutting a man down is evidence of a disturbed mind. In the world, different ways of cutting a man down do not exist.”

Although, I have used the small San-shou here as an example this applies to all the forms and training methods - no exception!

They say that a fool and his money are parted easily and that every student deserves the teacher they get…

Question is who are you going to believe? The real warriors who actually lived, walked and died on the Way or the paper tigers who’d be blown away in an instant by an amateur boxer - yet they’ll tell you that they know better?

When time frames of study were given by real Masters, they were given for a reason. The longer the time frame the deeper the required study of the subject matter!

Enjoy the journey!